LMNTRIX regional vice president Amanulla Khan says organisations must assume breach and be judged on how fast they detect, contain, and recover
Cybersecurity has moved decisively from the server room to the boardroom, and few voices articulate that shift more clearly than Amanulla Khan, Regional Vice President for the Middle East, Turkey and Africa at LMNTRIX, Inc. Khan believes the industry’s decades-old reactive model, built on alerts, escalations and analyst availability, is no longer fit for an era in which AI has amplified the speed, scale and sophistication of attacks.
The regional VP for META’s prescription is an active defense strategy that assumes breach; it measures success by how quickly organisations can detect, investigate, contain, and recover. Tahawultech.com spoke with Khan about LMNTRIX’s outcome-based approach, its hyper-converged platform and Cyber Defense Centre, shifting boardroom priorities, and his vision for helping organisations across the META region move from managing cybersecurity to mastering cyber resilience.
Interview Excerpts:
What are the biggest cybersecurity challenges enterprises across the Middle East, Turkey and Africa must prepare for as AI-driven threats continue to evolve?
The biggest misconception today is that AI has fundamentally changed cybersecurity. It hasn’t. What AI has changed is the speed, scale and sophistication at which attackers can operate. Threat actors are now using AI to automate reconnaissance, craft highly convincing phishing campaigns, develop malware variants, and identify vulnerabilities in a fraction of the time it once took. As a result, the gap between attack speed and organizational response capability is widening rapidly. At the same time, organisations across the region are accelerating digital transformation, adopting cloud-first strategies, embracing AI within their own businesses, and connecting more operational technology than ever before. Every one of these initiatives expands the attack surface.The reality is that most organisations don’t suffer from a lack of cybersecurity tools. Many already have world-class firewalls, endpoint protection, email security, and identity platforms. Yet breaches continue to occur because security has traditionally focused on preventing attacks, rather than assuming attackers will eventually get in.
At LMNTRIX, we believe the future of cybersecurity belongs to organisations that adopt an Active Defense strategy. That means continuously hunting for threats, validating suspicious activity, and autonomously investigating and containing attacks before they become business-impacting incidents. One of the things that consistently surprises organisations engaging with our Cyber Defense Centre is that we frequently identify active threats that have bypassed existing security investments. That’s why the question Boards should be asking is no longer, “How many security tools do we own?” It should be, “How quickly can we detect and stop an attacker once they’re inside our environment?” Ultimately, cyber resilience is no longer measured by how well you prevent attacks. It is measured by how quickly you detect, investigate, contain and recover from them.
How is LMNTRIX helping organisations move from reactive cybersecurity to a more proactive and autonomous defense strategy?
For decades, the cybersecurity industry has operated on a reactive model. An alert is generated, an analyst investigates it, someone escalates it, and eventually a response is initiated. Unfortunately, attackers don’t operate according to business hours or analyst availability. LMNTRIX was built to challenge that operating model. Rather than delivering another security tool that generates more alerts, we deliver cybersecurity outcomes. Our hyper-converged platform combines thirteen native security modules into a single architecture, eliminating many of the visibility gaps and operational complexity created by disconnected point solutions.
“By correlating telemetry across endpoint, network, cloud, identity and other security layers, our platform provides contextual, high-confidence detections instead of overwhelming security teams with thousands of alerts.”
Technology alone, however, is only part of the equation. Our Cyber Defense Centre operates as an extension of our customers’ security teams, combining AI-driven analytics with experienced threat hunters and incident responders who continuously validate, investigate, and respond to threats. This human-plus-AI approach enables organisations to benefit from autonomous response while maintaining expert oversight where it matters most. Perhaps most importantly, our engagement model reflects how we think about cybersecurity. Customers don’t buy blocks of incident response hours or worry about additional charges during a cyber crisis. We include unlimited incident response because, in our view, cybersecurity should be measured by successful outcomes, not by the number of tickets raised or hours consumed. That philosophy fundamentally changes the relationship between customer and vendor. Our success is measured by our customers’ resilience.
What advice would you give CISOs and business leaders looking to strengthen cyber resilience without slowing digital transformation?
My advice is to stop viewing cybersecurity as a technology problem and start viewing it as a business resilience strategy. Digital transformation inevitably increases cyber risk, but it should never become a reason to slow innovation. Instead, organisations need security architectures that are capable of adapting as quickly as the business evolves. The first step is simplification. Many enterprises have accumulated dozens of disconnected security products over the years. Every additional console, integration and manual workflow increases complexity, creates operational overhead and introduces blind spots that sophisticated attackers are very good at exploiting.
The second is to shift the conversation from technology acquisition to measurable business outcomes. Boards are far less interested in how many alerts were investigated than they are in understanding whether the organisation can maintain operations during a cyber incident, protect customer trust and minimise financial impact. Those are the metrics that matter. Finally, embrace automation intelligently. AI should not replace cybersecurity professionals. It should remove repetitive tasks, accelerate investigations, and empower analysts to focus on higher-value decision making. Organisations that successfully combine automation with human expertise will consistently outperform those relying on either in isolation.
“Cyber resilience isn’t achieved by buying more security products. It’s achieved by building the capability to continuously detect, investigate and respond to threats as the business evolves.”
Having worked closely with organisations across the region, what trends are you seeing in cybersecurity investment and boardroom priorities?
The conversation in the boardroom has changed significantly over the past few years. Cybersecurity is no longer viewed as an IT function, it has become a business continuity, financial risk and corporate governance issue. Boards are asking far more strategic questions. Instead of asking, “Which security product should we buy?” they’re asking, “How exposed are we?”, “How resilient are we?” and “If an incident occurs tomorrow, how quickly can we recover?”
We’re also seeing growing frustration with fragmented security environments. Many organisations have invested heavily in best-of-breed technologies over the years, yet security teams continue to struggle with alert fatigue, staffing shortages and disconnected operational workflows. As a result, investment is increasingly moving towards platform consolidation, AI-driven security operations and outcome-based cybersecurity services that reduce complexity while improving operational effectiveness. Another important trend is the recognition that cybersecurity talent remains scarce globally. Rather than attempting to build increasingly large Security Operations Centers internally, organisations are looking for strategic partners that can augment their capabilities through specialised Cyber Defense Centers, advanced automation and continuous threat hunting.
“Ultimately, organisations are no longer measuring value by the number of security products they deploy. They’re measuring value by reductions in cyber risk, operational efficiency and business resilience. That’s a very positive shift for the industry.”
As you take on your new role at LMNTRIX, what is your vision for strengthening the company’s presence and impact across the Middle East, Turkey and Africa?
The region represent one of the most dynamic and strategically important cybersecurity markets in the world. Governments and enterprises across the region are investing heavily in digital economies, smart infrastructure, AI adoption, and cloud transformation. Cybersecurity will be fundamental to enabling that growth. My vision extends beyond expanding market presence or increasing revenue. I want LMNTRIX to become recognised as one of the region’s most trusted cybersecurity partners by changing the conversation around what effective cyber defense should look like. For too long, the industry has encouraged organisations to measure security by the number of tools deployed, alerts generated or analysts employed. I believe those are operational metrics, not business outcomes. At LMNTRIX, we believe organisations should expect more from their cybersecurity partners. They should expect measurable reductions in risk, continuous protection through Active Defense, rapid detection and response, and the confidence that when a serious incident occurs, an experienced Cyber Defense Centre is already working alongside them. That philosophy is reflected in everything we do, from our unified platform with thirteen integrated security capabilities to our commitment to unlimited incident response and our focus on delivering outcomes rather than products. As I engage with customers, partners and governments across the META region, my objective is simple, to help organisations move from managing cybersecurity to mastering cyber resilience. Because in today’s threat landscape, resilience is no longer just a security objective. It is a business imperative.
Source: Tahawul Tech